Hartford, Connecticut: No. 4 UConn Beats Gardner-Webb 86-46 for Hurley's 200th Win

No. 4 UConn opened its season on Monday night with an 86-46 win over Gardner-Webb at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. The win was the 200th at UConn for head coach Dan Hurley, and it gave the Huskies their 10th straight win in a season opener.

Mullins leads a balanced night

Braylon Mullins scored 20 points for UConn, with 11 of them in the second half. The preseason All-Big East guard made 7 of 12 shots and 4 of 9 three-pointers. Nik Khamenia, a transfer from Duke, finished with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists in his first game for the Huskies.

Na'jai Hines had 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. Freshman Colben Landrew added 11 points and five rebounds, and Silas Demary Jr. finished with eight rebounds and eight assists. UConn shot 51.7 percent from the field, won the rebounding battle 46-28 and outscored Gardner-Webb 42-10 in the paint.

The Huskies led 43-24 at halftime. Mullins scored eight of UConn's 14 points in the first five minutes of the second half, and the 19-point halftime lead grew to 28 points. The lead passed 30 points for the first time with 9:01 left after a Khamenia three-pointer and a fast-break finish by Jayden Ross.

Gardner-Webb held to 26 percent

Gardner-Webb (0-1) shot 26 percent from the field. Jacob Hudson led the Runnin' Bulldogs with nine points, and their starters missed 24 of their 31 field goal attempts. UConn also held a 21-3 edge in fast-break points.

The men's game closed a Hartford doubleheader. The UConn women opened the day at the same arena with a 100-35 win over Cornell, their 31st straight win in a season opener.

UConn (1-0) is 9-0 in season openers under Hurley. The test gets harder fast. The Huskies play Michigan on Friday, Nov. 6 at TD Garden in Boston, a rematch of last season's national championship game, which Michigan won on its way to the national title.

Mullins did it after missing exhibition time in October. He sat out two of UConn's three exhibition games, then came back to lead the team in scoring in the first game that counted. Hurley used a nine-man rotation for most of the night, and the bench minutes went to Landrew, Nils Machowski, Junior County and Oskar Giltay. Senior wing Jayden Ross gave the Hartford crowd its loudest moment of the second half with an alley-oop dunk on the fast break, one of the plays that turned a comfortable lead into a rout.